Science Gallery to literally blow your ‘Mindfield’ at Electric Picnic

Walking on water, mind-reading – seems the stuff of mythology – but at Mindfield from today at this year’s Electric Picnic, Dublin’s Science Gallery will show that the impossible is possible.

This year, Electric Picnic in Stradbally, Co Laois, will be celebrating its 10th anniversary and music fans will be treated to an all-star line-up that includes Bjork, Two Door Cinema Club, the Arctic Monkeys, Fatboy Slim, David Byrne, Franz Ferdinand, Ellie Goulding and many more.

For those who want to take a break from the music and have their minds stimulated in other ways, the Dublin Science Gallery team has created its own stellar line-up of talks, experiments, workshops and more.

Running over Saturday and Sunday, the line-up features a live recording of Newstalk’s Futureproof with musician Billy Bragg, and a look inside the world of magic with deception artist Paul Gleeson. Festival favourite Ignite is a series of high-energy five-minute talks where speakers, including geneticist Aoife McLysaght and stuntman Peter Dillon, will share an idea using 20 slides that change every 15 seconds.

On Saturday, the Science Gallery team will be performing hands-on demos, including the use of Mindball, which involves strap-on sensors to allow people to compete in an intense mental battle to see who is the most relaxed.

Magic, psychology and art

Science Gallery’s new exhibition, ILLUSION, is exploring the relationship between magic, deception and neuroscience. In this exclusive performance, deception artist and ILLUSION researcher Paul Gleeson, aka Rua, will break down the scientific side of magic and illusion, offering you a glimpse behind the curtain of this mysterious world.